Oregon's Gun Relief Program for Adjudicated Mentally Ill Persons: The Psychiatric Security Review Board

This article describes the State of Oregon's implementation of two programs designed to comply with federal gun laws regarding reporting individuals who have received mental health adjudications in criminal and civil courts. One mandate requires that states submit names of adjudicated individuals to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) while the second requires that the state establish a qualifying gun restoration program for those disqualified from gun ownership. In 2009, Oregon's Legislature developed an administrative approach to gun restoration and assigned the responsibility for conducting these hearing to the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board (PSRB). The PSRB is a state administrative board that has existed since 1977 and has been primarily focused on the supervision and treatment of adult and juvenile insanity acquittees. The gun restoration program began in 2010, but to date has only received three completed petitions requesting restoration of firearm rights. The article concludes with a discussion that surmises why very few of the Oregonians who are listed in NICS have submitted petitions for relief. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Evolving Position of the American Psychiatric Association on Firearm Policy (1993–2014)

Before the Supreme Court's 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, the American Psychiatric Association's position on gun policy reflected the strong gun control perspective championed by the nation's public health establishment. After Heller declared that an individual's right to bear arms is constitutionally protected, the APA refocused its attention on the specific aspects of firearm policy that implicate the interests and rights of persons with mental illness. Psychiatrists are mindful of the need to curtail firearm access by persons with mental disorders that elevate the risk of suicide or violence to others, but they are also opposed to stigmatization, discrimination, and unfair treatment of individuals based on mental illness. Although civil commitment is an acceptable basis for prohibiting access to firearms, other adjudications of conduct indicative of elevated risk should also be included. Every state should provide a fair and reasonable process for restoring firearm rights after a suitable waiting period based on individualized assessment of whether the person remains at an elevated risk. However, restricting firearm rights of persons solely on the basis of a diagnosis of a mental disorder or voluntary treatment, whether in-patient or outpatient, discourages treatment and would be counterproductive. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. (original adopted by the American Psychiatric Association 2014).     

California Firearms Law and Mental Illness

California provides numerous pathways by which people with mental illness can qualify for a state-level firearm prohibition. The state's involuntary detention for psychiatric treatment, or “5150” (CA W&I Code 5150) process, is often cited as one potential mechanism for reducing violence by dangerous people, though its use is limited to people whose dangerousness is due to a mental illness. Additionally, California has taken legislative steps to prohibit firearm ownership among other people who have an increased risk of violence, regardless of whether or not mental illness is a factor. This article compares the California firearm ownership disqualification system for mental illness with the federal system and those of other states, examines the strengths and weaknesses of this system, and reviews alternatives. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Suicide Prevention Campaign for Firearm Dealers in New Hampshire

A spate of suicides involving a just‐purchased firearm led a statewide coalition of firearm dealers, firearm rights advocates, and suicide prevention professionals to discuss the role of gun shops in preventing suicide. The group developed and mailed materials for (1) firearm retailers on avoiding sales to suicidal customers and (2) their customers on suicide and firearm safety. All storefront retailers were identified (n = 65), visited unannounced 6 months after receiving materials, and asked to complete a survey. Nearly half (48%) had at least one campaign product on display. Belief that reducing a suicidal person's access to firearms might save a life was associated with displaying materials (69% vs. 41%, p = .06). Public health and gun groups can successfully collaborate on suicide prevention activities.     

THE RIGHTS OF MUSLIM WOMEN: A Comment on Irene Oh's The Rights of God

This review of Irene Oh's The Rights of God focuses on women's rights in Islamic theory and practice. Oh suggests that religious establishments, and the texts they disseminate, often press believers to recognize and reject social problems, such as racial and gender discrimination. Islamic scholars and texts have played a more ambiguous role in efforts to recognize women's rights within Muslim states. Modernist intellectuals have used Islamic texts to support the advancement of women's rights, but members of the more conservative religious establishment have typically curbed or rejected these efforts. Muslim women themselves have established various responses to the question of Islam's compatibility with women's rights. While some embrace the value and compatibility of both, others reject the propriety of either Western conceptions of rights, or the Islamic tradition, as harmful for women. Muslim reformers and feminists have much to learn from comparative studies with other faith communities that have undergone similar struggles and transformations.     

It Only Takes One Psychologist to Demonstrate the Impact of Psychological Assessment

Evidence is needed in the field of psychological assessment of psychiatric patients to verify if test findings actually influence the clinical processes of diagnosis, treatment, case disposition, and outcome. Those who perform many assessments can conduct limited experiments to measure these effects. One such study is presented. It is a quasi-experiment in which the value of the psychologist's diagnostic recommendations to treating psychiatrists was measured. Diagnoses at admission, at subsequent psychological evaluation, and at discharge were compared among 70 patients referred to a clinical diplomate from the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) for assessment. The psychiatrists who had referred the patient agreed with the psychologist's diagnosis in 94% of the cases. Agreement was high even when the psychologist had disagreed with the admitting psychiatrists' diagnoses. Despite imperfections in research design, the study demonstrates that solo practitioners can evaluate the impact of assessment. Other possibilities for study are presented, as are reasons for the significant findings of this study.     

A Model of Infant Mood States and Sandarian Affective Waves

There has been little or no research on the establishment of infant moods or the mechanisms underlying them. One reason may be our difficulty in entertaining the idea that there are affective processes in infants that have long-lasting organizing continuous effects. It is this possibility that is considered in this paper. I attempt to address the questions of how moods are created and what some of their functions are. My model of moods is that infants have long-lasting (e.g., hours, days, and even longer) mood states. Mood states are dynamically changing yet distinct assemblages of affective behaviors. Mood control processes are modified by affective input from others. Thus moods are cocreated by the interplay of active, self-organized, biorhythmic affective control processes in the infant and the effect of the emotions expressed by others on mood control processes. In recognition of the importance of Sander's thinking to this work, I have named one of these processes the Sanderian Affective Wave. Mood states organize behavior and experience over time. Critically, moods serve an anticipatory representational function by providing directionality to an infant's behavior as he “moves” into the future. Thus they provide continuity to infants' experiential life. Furthermore, moods fulfill the Janus principle of bringing the past into the future for the infant, but as a noncognitive/symbolic/linguistic process—that is, as a purely affective–memorial process. Moreover, I believe that consideration of the development of moods opens the way for thinking about dynamic conflictual emotional processes in infants. Lastly, thinking about moods has important implications for understanding the development of pathology and for therapy.     

Psychiatric prediction of dangerousness in capital sentencing: The quest for innocent authority

Eight states require the sentencer in a capital case to consider directly the question of whether a criminal defendant would pose a danger to the community in the long term. Although all available psychiatric evidence indicates that psychiatrists cannot make accurate predictions of criminal defendants' future dangerousness, sentencers rely heavily upon clinicians' predictions of long-term future dangerousness when imposing the death penalty. Legislatures and courts accept psychiatrists' predictions of dangerousness by relying on an elaborate “subterfuge” which uses powerful emotional influences to cover up painful conflicts of values and to satisfy society's desire for simultaneous innocence and authority.     

Informed Consent at Gunpoint: When Psychiatry Affects Gun Ownership

As states take more steps to connect patients’ gun ownership to their mental health, psychiatrists are being asked to provide mental health information after clinical interviews as well as after confiscation. This move into the patient–physician relationship raises new questions about how psychiatrists should obtain informed consent when interviews may result in reports to legal authorities. Consent warnings are already practiced more in the breach than in the observance and informed consent is imperfect at its best. In communities torn by controversies surrounding gun control, vehement political views will further influence these established themes to result in unprecedented pressures on patient confidentiality. This analysis draws on new movements in ethical theory and behavioral medicine that go beyond balancing principles to question the use of psychiatry in firearm reporting, and support a vigorous practice of informed consent to protect both individuals and the communities they live in. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Functioning of Epigenetically Evolved Emotion Systems: A Constructive Analysis

Abstract

The theory of emotions outlined in this paper follows a general theory that psychological processes maintain an adaptive equilibrium between one's construction system and sensory input from one's world. Persons build constructions to match any class of sensory data, and also build standards for (construe) varied levels of input which accompany the arousal-related activity associated with standard/input mismatch. Conscious identification of different emotional states reflects the use of constructions assigned to different standard/input relations. A constructivist may regard different emotional states or experiences as idealized configurations of attributes; and these configurations can be treated as prototypes, applying the same analyses which have been developed by cognitive scientists who have offered models for discussions of categorization processes. A model for discussing emotional development is provided, and directions of future constructivist investigations are suggested     

The neglected object: A history of the concept of dreams in Polish psychiatry and psychology in the interwar period, 1918–1939

The development of the concept of dreams in interwar Polish psychiatry and psychology was influenced by Western European concepts as well as by sociocultural factors of the newly independent state. Few Polish psychiatrists addressed the subject of dreams. They were influenced mainly by Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic concept of dreams, but also by Alferd Adler's, Carl Gustav Jung's, and Wilhelm Stekel's ideas. Nevertheless, they approached psychoanalysis critically. The most comprehensive concept of dreams in Polish psychiatry was oneiroanalysis by Tadeusz Bilikiewicz. Oneironalysis was a method of dream analysis based on psychoanalysis but it rejected the psychoanalytic method of free associations and challenged psychoanalytic approaches to the interpretation of dream symbols. Polish psychologists were even less interested in dreams than psychiatrists. Problems with dreams, the most elaborate psychological work by Stefan Szuman consisted of an outline of epistemological problems with general theories of dreams and a harsh critique of psychoanalysis. The neglect of the subject of dreams in Polish psychiatric society can be seen as connected with the social and professional reception of psychoanalysis in Poland. Psychoanalysis was met with opposition from conservative scholars and publicists presenting nationalistic and anti-Semitic attitudes. It was also criticized by the biologically oriented majority of psychiatrists of the Polish Psychiatric Association. In the case of psychology, the most influential Polish psychological school, Lvov-Warsaw School, promoted Brentanian intentionalism, introspection, and psychology of consciousness, therefore, leading to psychologists' reluctance to explore unconscious states like dreams.     

Psychosynthesis of the brain and mind: Comments on a new intellectual framework in psychiatry and psychotherapy

Abstract

Eric R. Kandel, the Nobel Prize winner of 2000 in physiology and medicine, emphasises five scientific principles of which psychiatrists must be aware and which are presented and critically analysed in this article. Kandel states that professional requirements for future psychiatrists will impose a greater knowledge of the structure and functioning of the brain, and that the rationale for the unique domain that psychiatry occupies within academic medicine is the analysis and understanding of the interaction between the social and biological determinants of behaviour. The work of a psychotherapist is based both on scientific knowledge and, to a large extent, on an empathic understanding of the patient's history as well as his or her verbal and non-verbal expressions – as a consequence, the orientation of hermeneutic philosophy and semiotics should also be included in the intellectual framework. The aim of this paper is to update the channels of communication between modern neurobiology, psychoanalysis, semiotics and philosophy to the best advantage for their multidisciplinary, holistic cooperation.     

‘Humane intervention’: the international protection of animal rights

This paper explores the international implications of liberal theories which extend justice to sentient animals. In particular, it asks whether they imply that coercive military intervention in a state by external agents to prevent, halt or minimise violations of basic animal rights (‘humane intervention’) can be justified. In so doing, it employs Simon Caney's theory of humanitarian intervention and applies it to non-human animals. It argues that while humane intervention can be justified in principle using Caney's assumptions, justifying any particular intervention on behalf of animals is much more difficult – and in present circumstances impossible. If these claims are correct, a number of important conclusions follow. First, all states lack legitimacy because of the horrors that they inflict upon animals. As a result of this, all states are prima facie liable to intervention by external agents. To remedy this situation, all states have the responsibility to massively transform their relationship with non-human animals, and to build international institutions to oversee the proper protection of their most basic rights.     

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

ABSTRACT

Since beginning readers rely on their oral language to gain meaning from text, oral reading is the preferred mode of reading for these students. While there are several reasons for this, one is that reading development seems to parallel Vygotsky's theory of language development. His theory states that language proceeds from a social speech to the development of inner speech. As children internalize language, which allows for abstract thought processes to develop, they go through a period of egocentric speech. During this time, the children use language overtly to control and monitor their learning. Children's reading behavior may go through a similar process.     

Spinoza's environmental ethics

The paper explores an apparent tension in Spinoza's thought between his treatment of man as part of nature, with no specially privileged position within it; and his treatment of morality as circumscribed by what is good for human beings. These two themes, it is argued, are in fact interconnected in Spinoza's thought. The paper goes on to consider some possible responses, from a contemporary standpoint, to Spinoza's rejection of animal rights. Finally, it is argued that the apparent tension in Spinoza's thought becomes more understandable in the light of his treatment of the importance of truth to human beings; and that this throws into relief some puzzling features of some contemporary formulations of the theme of man as part of nature.     

Reasoning bias for the recall of one's own beliefs in a Smarties task for adults

While many studies in the theory of mind (ToM) literature have investigated how we understand others' mental states, few have explored the mechanism by which we reflect on our own mental states. This study examined how adults reflect on their own and others' mental states within the same ToM task. To do so, we modified the Smarties task, one of the traditional ToM tasks for children. The results showed that adult participants were biased by outcome knowledge when recalling their false belief and that the participants who overestimated their false belief also overestimated the mental states of a naive other. These results were analogous to young children's failure in the Smarties task. Considering the current findings, we discuss possible cognitive processes that are common across children and adults when reflecting on their own mental states and the mental states of others.     

Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth: The Secret of Counterdepressive Narratives1

The author interprets Jules Verne's Journey to the centre of the Earth with the help of Matte Blanco's theoretical framework, which describes the principle of symmetry and the principle of generalization. The fi rst states that, from the moment an element or a proposition becomes conscious, it coexists in the unconscious with its symmetrically opposite form. The second refers to the confusion of elements once they have been apprehended by thought as containing a common point; they are put into larger and larger groups which merge into an indivisible whole. Verne's novel is built on paired elements which become symmetrized (e.g. distinct minerals vs molten lava; scientifi c rationality vs madness; the living vs the dead, etc.). These elements in turn become confused with one another, thanks largely to the novel's atmosphere of oral incorporation. This allows the fusion between subject and object, and, in particular, between the orphaned hero and his dead (Earth) mother. The novel's narrative evolution through three stages (separation, fusion and de‐fusion, which are paralleled by rational, irrational and rational thought) can thus be understood as a mourning process. Similar processes can be found in other literary works.     

Smokers' rights to health care: why the 'restoration argument' is a moralising wolf in a liberal sheep's clothing

Do people who cause themselves to be ill (e.g. by smoking) forfeit some of their rights to healthcare? This paper examines one argument for the view that they do, the restoration argument. It goes as follows. Smokers need more health-resources than non-smokers. Given limited budgets, we must choose between treating everyone equally (according to need) or reducing smokers' entitlements. If we choose the former, non-smokers will be harmed by others' smoking, because there will be less resources available for them than if no-one smoked. This is unfair: why should non-smokers suffer because of others' unhealthy lifestyle choices? We should therefore choose the latter and reduce smokers' entitlements. This paper criticises the restoration argument on the following grounds. In order to avoid generating unpalatable conclusions elsewhere, it must be combined with a principle according to which activities which are sufficiently ‘socially valuable’ (e.g. parenting) are immune from restoration claims. This however means that what was supposed to be one of the argument's most attractive features, its compatibility with ‘liberal neutrality’ with respect to the value of different lifestyles, doesn't really exist. Hence, the restoration argument is nowhere near as attractive as it at first appears to be.     

Self-determination Versus the Determination of Self: A Critical Reading of the Colonial Ethics Inherent to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The United Nations' (UN) adoption of a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is intended to mark a fundamental ethical turn in the relationships between indigenous peoples and the community of sovereign states. This moment is the result of decades of discussion and negotiation, largely revolving around states' discomfort with notion of indigenous self-determination. Member states of the UN have feared that an ethic of indigenous self-determination would undermine the principles of state sovereignty on which the UN is itself grounded. However, such fears are the result of very poor understandings of the ethical principles under which the relations between indigenous peoples and nation-states already have been formed under centuries of European colonialism. The principle of self-determination embraced in this Declaration does not diverge from colonial norms; it entrenches these norms as international policy. Without doubt, indigenous peoples are more likely to benefit than suffer from states' observance of the Articles within this Declaration. Reducing the challenge of indigenous peoples' rights to the notion of self-determination set out in this document, though, misses an extraordinarily important opportunity to critically investigate the ethic of rights that has produced an opposition between nation-states and indigenous peoples to begin with. A true turn in the ethics of this relationship would see not simply the institution of a right to self-determination but, rather, indigenous peoples' right to first determine the nature of self for themselves.